A Stylistic Analysis of William Shakespeare’s

“My Mistress’ Eyes are nothing like the Sun (Sonnet

130)”

Keilah Mari L. Reyes

Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English
University of Southeastern Philippines
Introduction
Understanding poem beyond its literal meaning makes you
appreciate the piece even more. The linguistic analysis of literary
language is known as stylistics. According to Wales (1989), the
word style is quite difficult to define. The reason behind this
difficulty is related to the way how can readers understand it.
This might affect the features related to stylistics, which is part of
linguistics. Linguistics which represents the broader discipline and
stylistics is a part of it, helps readers to discover the hidden clues
about the language.
Stylistics takes a close look at the text and analyzes its
significant language forms for the sake of interpretation, it comes
very close to practical criticism. Stylistics, in fact, has a great
effect in almost every kind of critical approach. Leech and Short
(1981) also define it as the linguistic study of style. Wales (1989)
pointed out that each person has his own way of doing an action
or writing about the same theme or even describing the same
painting. She ascertains that style can be different in various
situations and according to the degree of formality what she
called "style shifting". Furthermore, the genres of literature also
differ in their style whether fiction, poetry or any other type of
literature. Wales also mentioned style can vary through time, for
example, the style of modern and metaphysical poetry is quite
different.
This paper shall do a stylistic reading of the classic poem My
Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the Sun, written by one of the
most prominent renowned English poet William Shakespeare. This
is the 130th sonnet in Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence of 154
sonnets, published in 1609. It was very customary, following the
conventions set up by the Italian lyric poet Petrarch (1304–74), to
write sonnets praising the beauty of the woman you were in love
with.

Initial Reading. Upon my initial reading of the poem I was

confuse of what the poem really is. Even the title itself, sounds
like an insult to the one being address by the speaker. It sounds
like it’s not a love poem, but rather a person dissing another. I
cannot say that the poem is predominantly about love because
upon reading it I cannot feel any love at all. I then imagine my
self being compared with all those hideous things and I feel very
much unappreciated. As the poem goes on the comparison
between hideous things and the mistress worsen. I was then got
more confuse when the speaker mention the word “love” (L9) for
the very first time and then went back to being harsh again.
The poem went from insulting the mistress’ physical
features (L2; L3; L4; L6), commenting bad thing about the way
she smells (L8), and pointing out the odd way that she walks
(L12), but all of the sudden declare that his love is rare (L13) and
deny all those comparison against his mistress’ (L14).Then and
there I was amazed on how he completely twist the whole
scenario, but I was still confuse of why she would insult her wife
and then proclaim that he love her.
This initial reading shall be set aside in favor of a
systematic, verifiable stylistic analysis, which will be represented
in the following section. It will be later compared with the stylistic
reading, which will be presented in the conclusion section of this
paper.
Results and Discussion
Linguistic Features of W. Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’
Eyes are nothing like the Sun (Sonnet 130)”
Phonetic Features. The poem is compose of a single,
fourteen lines stanza. It is in a typical English or Shakespearean
sonnet form. The rhyme scheme in the quatrains (L1-L12) is a
cross rhyme a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f while the last two (2) lines
(L13-L14) are rhyming couplet g-g. Iambic pentameter is a
rhyme scheme that was being used in the poem in which each
line consists of 10 syllables these syllables are further divided
into 5 pairs called iambic feet, as L1 & L2 perfectly demonstrated.
my MIStress' EYES are NOthing LIKE the SUN; (L1)
COral is Far more RED than HER lips' RED; (L2)
The rhyme scheme is masculine, which means the rhymes
land on the stressed second beat of the iamb, for example “Sun -
Red - Dun – Head” (L1&L2). The poem has a fast and upbeat
rhythm that has remain constant from (L1-L2), but the rhythm
suddenly shift from fast to a softer tone in (L13-L14) which
implies a change in emotion due to what the speaker want to
convey or because of the message that the writer is saying.
Grammatical Features. The poem has made it too
obvious that it uses a comparative form to emphasize his point.
The anaphora in L3 & L4 is closing up the first quatrains with the
word “If”. If we look closely we would know that the words that
are being use are extreme and therefore a superlative and was
expressed in a negative way. It is also obvious that the poem is in
a third person point of view.

Semantic Features. If we look closely to the words being

presented by the speaker we can then comprehend that the
speaker uses inversion. He present what is not. If we read the
poem without further analyzing it meaning behind the physical
context it is indeed a dissing poem rather than a love poem. It
seems likely that the poet purposefully creating an imagery unto
the readers mind of a very physically unpleasing woman. (L1-L12)
are nothing but cruel words of insult. The speaker is telling us
that the woman he is with does not transcended with the beauty
standard set the society. The here comes the line “And yet, by
heaven, I think my love as rare” (L13), which implies that the
speakers love is one of a kind so therefore, despite all the bad
qualities the woman has he still loves her. It is then followed by a
certain “As any she belied with false compare.” (L14) implying
that all those words written prior to this line are false and
therefore not true at all. These very words just trigger the fusion
and in a snap of a finger the poem just proven itself a love poem
for every insult that was written in the first lines fade in
comparison when those line (L13&L14) took place in the poem.
Conclusion

Stylistic Analysis. Contrary to my initial reading when in I

stated that I was having a second thought of considering this
poem a romantic love poem, after doing the stylistic analysis for
this piece I can now proclaim that this is not just an ordinary love
poem but a one of a kind instead.
In terms of meaning, my initial literary reading of the poem
and my stylistic analysis, I found out that the poem is not actually
a dissing poem for someone but the other way around because
the sonnet present us with a series of inversions. With that being
said, those exaggerated metaphors of hideous thing thaw was
being compared to the mistress in the beginning of the poem was
actually a false comparison. The poem as what I have said, is a
kind of inverted love poem, so it basically implies that the
mistress is indeed very beautiful, but the writer thought that it is
very important to view the woman he loves realistically and
praise her beauty in real terms.
Also, I was not able to grasp the whole point of the poem in
my initial reading. The poem is already proven a romantic love
poem by the help of the stylistic analysis. It is a product of love
written by a man who is madly smitten and that proves that his
love goes beyond what the eyes can see. It is a proclamation of
love that is deeply rooted by pure adoration despite the woman
lack of charm in terms physical appearance.
The wit of the writer was also reinforced upon reading and
understanding the poem. His way of confession his love is not like
all the other. He has the charm of making a woman hate him and
then suddenly turn the raging fire of anger into butterflies in your
stomach that make you flutter and feel loved. His poem is more
genuine, he may present it in the most negative way but we
already know that he was just surpassing conventional
complements and so implying the real loveliness of his wife. He is
actually playing an overly exaggerated silly poet game, wherein
he is overturning conventional way of praising a woman in order
to imply that his love transcends that.
 In conclusion, the use of stylistic analysis for understanding
a poem has proved useful in this case as it is made obvious by
the wide variation between the initial literary analysis and the
stylistic analysis.

REFERENCES
Rolfe, W. J. (1883). Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Shakespeare, W. (1966). Complete Sonnets and Poems of William
Shakespeare. Airmont Publishing Company.
Short, M. H., & Leech, G. (1981). Style in Fiction. Harlow: Longman.
Wales, K. (2006). Stylistics.
Wales, K. (2014). A dictionary of stylistics. Routledge.
 APPENDIX B
Artifact of the Study

My Mistress’ Eyes are nothing like the Sun (Sonnet 130)

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
Line 1 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
2 Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
3 If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
4 If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
5 I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
6 But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
7 And in some perfumes is there more delight
8 Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
9 I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
10 That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
11 I grant I never saw a goddess go;
12 My mistress, when she walks, treads on the
ground:
13 And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
14 As any she belied with false compare.